Miss Therapist
Alternative treatment methods
There are also alternative treatments known to show positive effects to depression. Their effectiveness is yet to be proven scientifically.
| St. John’s Wort | Study showed that plants like St. John’s Wort could be a natural antidepressant (Linde et al., 1996). If you decide to take it as your treatment, please inform your physician to prevent incompatibilities with other medications. |
| Exercise | Study showed that exercise could significantly reduce depressive symptoms. Exercise 3 times a week for 40 minutes – over a period of 4 months, depressive symptoms could effectively be relieved (Babyak, 2000). |
| Positive Psychology | Positive psychology is a way to boost individual potentials, so as to people would live more positively, courageously, and conscientiously. It deepens your self-understanding and strengthens interpersonal skills. It allows you to become energetic to fight against failures and face difficulties in adversity, so that you will not be easily defeated. Study showed that among teenagers and adults who were trained in positive psychology, the probability to show a major depressive episode in the following two years was halved (Peterson, 2000). |
| References: | Linde, K., Ramirez, G., Mulrow, C. D., Pauls, A., Weidenhammer, W., & Melchart, D. (1996). St John’s Wort for depression: an overview and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. British Medical Journal, 313: 253-258 Babyak, M., Blumenthal, J.A., Herman, S., Khatri, P., Doraiswamy, M., Moore, K., Craighead, W. E., Baldewicz, T. T., & Krishnan, K. R. (2000). Exercise treatment for major depression: maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62: 633-638 Peterson, C. (2000). The future of optimism. American Psychologist, 55, 44-55. |